


Underwater

by ThisCat



Category: One Piece
Genre: Drowning, Gen, Helplessness, Introspection, Luffy will be the death of this crew someday, Near Death Experiences, Paralysis, Typical D Attitude Towards Mortality, Unwavering Faith, Yeah it's an introspective Luffy fic I know it sounds like an oxymoron, character making peace with his own death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-17
Updated: 2019-03-17
Packaged: 2019-11-21 20:51:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18147269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThisCat/pseuds/ThisCat
Summary: Luffy falls in the water.No one sees him fall this time, so he has a little time to himself before they notice. Oh, and he might die. There's that too.





	Underwater

**Author's Note:**

> Trying to get the tone right for One Piece fic. Still failing miserably, but at least I'm having fun.

It’s quiet, below the surface.

Luffy isn’t sure anyone saw him fall. It might take them a couple minutes to notice he’s gone.

Longer than that and he’s doomed. No reason to worry about it.

He’s not scared.

Sea water paralysis turns his limbs to lead, drags him down towards the dark, and it’s all he can do to hold his breath.

He doesn’t like it. He hates feeling powerless, but it doesn’t scare him anymore. He knows this feeling. It means someone is going to come for him soon. They always do.

It’s quiet. He can hear the faint booming of deep-sea creatures, the rush of blood in his own ears. The pressure around him grows steadily stronger.

It’s uncomfortable, deadly if he’s unlucky, but panicking only ever makes things worse. They’ll come for him. All he has to do until then is focus on holding his breath.

He can still see the sun, far above, its wavering image glinting through the silver-mirror surface of the ocean, a bright light in an endless blue expanse.

He can see the shadow of Sunny too, already pulling away from him. If he could move his arms, he would have raised one, just to see all his most important things fit in the palm of his hand.

His hat is up there too. Still sitting on the railing beside where he fell.

It’s quiet. He’s starting to feel dizzy, feel weightless as the ocean crushes him and pulls him down.

His lungs are burning, the instinct to take a breath rearing its head.

He can easily hold on a while longer.

It’s getting darker. He’s deep down now. Deeper than he’s been in a long time. He can still see the sun, but Sunny’s shadow is starting to disappear among the waves.

The edges of his vision blacken with unconsciousness. That’s bad. If he passes out, he’ll try to breathe, and then he really might die.

He closes his eyes against the darkness.

Reaching out with observation haki, he can still feel them, far above. Nine blazing stars, clusters of emotion moving around. The most important stars in the world.

They’re calm, happy. Haven’t noticed he’s gone yet.

Oh well, at least if he dies, he’ll die knowing his comrades are all alright. He can sense them so clearly from here, Sanji’s blazing flashes of passion, Zoro’s calm contentedness, Franky’s jittery existence, Robin’s solid certainty, each and every one of them, as familiar to him as his own hands. They flow together into an image of a happy summer day, and even from down here he feels at home.

This isn’t so bad.

He can’t move, can barely fight the waves of unconsciousness washing through his mind, but he smiles. This is fine. He would’ve liked to go further, but if this is as far as he got, that’s fine.

The ocean is closing its jaws around him, but that’s fine too. He loves the ocean, even if it doesn’t love him back.

Suddenly, panic shoots through his crew.

He can’t hear them, but he senses them clearly enough that he can imagine what they must sound like. The clatter of swords as Zoro curses himself, maybe a small explosion as Usopp drops whatever he’s working on, the dull sound of Robin’s book hitting the deck as she stands up, shrieks as Sanji holds Chopper and Brook back from jumping in as well, Nami shouting for someone to do something already, then a splash as someone does.

A star detaches from the constellation, heading downwards.

It’s Jimbei, of course, safe, steady Jimbei, emotions gone from joyful amusement to deadly focus in moments.

He’s scared, Luffy notices. They all are. That’s not good. He doesn’t want them to be scared.

Luffy’s lungs are on fire, screaming for air. He’s seconds away from passing out, but it doesn’t matter. Jimbei’s aimless worry turns to razor focus, and then he’s closing in.

Large hands close around Luffy’s shoulders and stomach, turns him upright and presses him against a cool, familiar body. Then they’re shooting up, up, up towards the sun.

They’re going fast, but the surface is so far away, and sparks go off behind Luffy’s eyelids as his body adjusts to the sudden pressure change.

He doesn’t have the strength to bite his teeth together against the impulse to breathe, but Jimbei’s hands are holding him pressed so flat he couldn’t draw a breath if he wanted to. The old air in his lungs comes out in a long stream of bubbles.

Then they breach the surface, and his world explodes with light and sound and air.

He doesn’t move, even as Jimbei lifts him halfway out of the water. He just breathes, and revels in the fresh air, in the strength returning to his limbs, in the strong sense of relief hanging around his comrade.

“Are you hurt?” Jimbei asks, still worried beneath the rush of relief.

Luffy grins. “Nah, I’m good. You came to get me!”

Jimbei smiles then, too. “Of course, Captain. I always will.”

“See?” Luffy says. “It’s fine.”

And it is, of course. Jimbei lifts him up so his legs are above water, and he feels perfectly alright again.

Sunny is well outside his rocket range by now, but he climbs onto Jimbei’s back and they catch up in no time.

With grass under his feet and his crew around him, the pressing jaws of the sea are all but forgotten, and he laughs as he places his hat back onto his head. “Sorry, guys!” he says. “Didn’t mean to scare you.”

Nami yells and hits him, of course, and it hurts through all his defences because she’s Nami and she loves him and that matters.

Then Sanji kicks him for daring to worry the ladies, and that hurts because Sanji never does anything halfway and he kicks with armament haki, but he loves Luffy too, so the pain doesn’t last.

With that out of the way, everyone goes back to their calm summer day, and only Chopper is left to fuss over him and ensure that he really isn’t hurt.

“It’s fine, Chopper,” Luffy reassures him. “I fall in the water all the time. It’s not gonna harm me.”

“But isn’t it scary?” Chopper asks with wide, worried eyes.

Luffy feels like most of the crew is listening, though he doesn’t get why. The danger has already passed. “Nah,” he says. “I wasn’t scared. You guys are here, after all.”

Then his stomach rumbles, and his strength might have returned, but he’s still hungry, and Sanji has traces of tension and protective worry left hanging around him, so he can probably be nagged into making food. Preferably meat.

Running across the deck towards the kitchen and Sanji, the sun dries the salt into Luffy’s hair.

He hears the wind, the waves, the seabirds above, the many varied noises of his comrades. The sea is below him, adventure ahead of him, and he has never felt safer.


End file.
